TRAILHEAD Across the street from 11323 NW Skyline Boulevard
DISTANCE 2 miles round trip
DURATION Forty-five minutes
ELEVATION A total change of 225 feet, with a low point of 630 feet and a high point of 855 feet
CONDITIONS This graveled logging road is well maintained.
FROM DOWNTOWN This hike begins 11.8 miles from West Burnside and Interstate 405. Drive north on Highway 30 (also called St. Helens Road). About an eighth of a mile past Linnton, turn left (west) up NW Newberry Road. Turn right onto NW Skyline Boulevard. You’ll find the gate to the logging road just past the intersection of Skyline and NW McNamee Road. Park in front of the gate, but do not block access. Please note that since this is privately held timberland it is particularly important to make as little impact as possible here. Remain on the logging road to avoid trespassing.
This is a nice short hike, mostly level and with all-weather roads, ideal for less intrepid woodsmen or for those traveling with kids. It affords beautiful views of Cornelius Pass and the
Tualatin Mountains stretching away endlessly to the north—a great introduction to what lies in store for the more ambitious hikes in this series. Elk are known to frequent the area described in this hike.
The trail immediately splits, heading both left and right. Take the right-hand spur—uphill. This will wind through a grove of young fir trees curving to the left (westward).
Ignore the short trail that branches off to the right; it connects with McNamee Road (0.2 mile). As the path proceeds gently downhill, you will enter an open glade planted with seedlings.
The glade faces a small hillock that was logged not long ago and is now slowly being reforested by young firs that stretch up the hillside. In the foreground you’ll see lots of bright yellow Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius), an invasive weed that has overrun most of the coastal areas from California to British Columbia.
In this clearing you’ll come to an intersection (0.9 mile from the gate). The right-hand trail winds around the upper reaches of the basin for about a third of a mile, concluding in a dead end on the opposing slope.
Take some time here to examine the ground for animal tracks. One of the best ways to learn about the activities of the animals in an area is to learn to identify their tracks, their idiosyncratic ways of marking their territory, and their scat. (Scat, of course, is the polite word for animal doo-doo.) It’s also a very effective way to determine who’s been hanging out on your trail.
In Forest Park and even more so beyond the park, you’re likely to see plentiful signs of both black-tailed deer and elk. The black-tailed deer live in small family groups, feeding primarily on salal, huckleberries, blackberries, and thimbleberries. Their tracks are heart-shaped (1.25–3.5 inches across) with the bottom end of the heart pointing in the direction of the deer’s direction of travel. The tracks left by the hind feet often cover those made by the front feet, and the front hoof is frequently splayed to allow the deer better traction.
Deer scat is pellet-shaped (0.5 inch in diameter) and usually deposited in small heaps. When fresh it has a wet, shiny appearance, turning dull in a day or so and eventually becoming paler. In winter the scat will be more distinctly pellet-shaped, but as the moisture content of the food increases they tend to bunch into larger clumps.
Elk tracks are both larger (3–4.5 inches across) and rounder than those of black-tailed deer. As with deer, the gait of an elk is an alternating, double-registering pattern with the hind hoof obliterating the front track. But elk are herd animals, like cows, moving in groups and leaving very noticeable trails.
Elk scat pellets are slightly elongated and bell-shaped with little points at the top of the bell. In the summer months when the feed is moister, they tend to clump together to form flat chips or even plops 5–6 inches in diameter.
Take the left-hand trail and proceed downhill past the young seedling fir trees. Look for deer and elk scat: it abounds in this area.
Another 0.3 mile will take you to the north side of the hillock to where the trail intersects with another lower logging road. This logging road (to the right) drops down into the valley, crosses the headwaters of McCarthy Creek, and continues across a more recent clear-cut. Eventually it splits into two trails. The upper spur turns back and recrosses the clear-cut higher on the slope before petering out in the bushes. The lower trail continues northward but also splits into two distinct tracks. The upper of these two spurs connects to Pauly Road via a short trail that intersects the trail in the final bend of this track.
For the purposes of this hike, ignore this northerly detour and proceed along the back of the hill (turn left). You will be rewarded with a lovely view westward across the McCarthy Creek basin, over Cornelius Pass Road, and into the Tualatin Mountains as they extend toward the coast.
Another tenth of a mile will take you out on the ridge and around the point. A shortcut runs just behind the point, if you’re willing to miss the view.
Along the way, or wherever you notice disturbed ground in the Tualatin Mountains, you may run into the notorious stinging nettle (Urtica dioica). Its narrow leaves are shaped like a mint leaf with a saw-toothed edge, and small flowers hang off the stem in drooping clusters. The leaves are covered with tiny hairs whose brittle ends break off to release formic acid, which causes a rash and itches for up to a few hours. Even dogs can be bothered by this plant and will develop itching on their snouts.
Stinging nettle
The stinging nettle was once popular with Pacific Northwest Indians, who used it as a material for making fishnets, snares, and tumplines. While Indians were also known to steam and eat the plant (resulting in its other common name, Indian spinach), this may have happened only at the instigation of settlers who were familiar with the nettle in Europe.
As a child I remember balancing on a log with friends, dressed in swimming trunks and armed with a cudgel, to reenact the famous contest between Robin Hood and Little John. Our log, rather than crossing a river as in the story, traversed a vicious patch of stinging nettles. After battling each other with long staves, one of us would ultimately tumble, nearly naked, into the nettles. I acquired a rather good sense of balance and can wield a pretty mean cudgel as a result!
On the far side of the point the trail winds gently back up the hill to the gate, approximately 0.8 mile from the intersection with the lower logging road.